Topic: Oliver the Eighth (1934) - Laurel and Hardy

[metaldams]

http://www.lordheath.com/menu1_223.html
http://www.laurelandhardycentral.com/ollie8.html

      One thing I'm noticing about Laurel and Hardy is that they never had an incredible run the way The Three Stooges did in the late 30's and early 40's or Buster Keaton did the entire decade of the 20's.  For example, the past few shorts were really good and SONS OF THE DESERT is a bona fide classic, then we get.....this.....followed by more good films.  It's an absolute roller coaster with Laurel and Hardy, though fortunately the peaks far outweigh the valleys.

      My issue with OLIVER THE EIGHTH really boils down to personal taste.  I guess this film is OK if scare comedy and invisible food is your thing, but I only consistently like the former with Bud and Lou and the latter never.  Look, with all the invisible card tricks and eating, I admit the pantomime is well done, the performers do a fine job of it, it's just not my thing.  Don't like it in HALF-WITS HOLIDAY or anywhere else either.

      There are a few good moments.  The four main performers all do a fine job whether I like the material or not, but but one good moment are the old Laurel and Hardy standard of stating the plan in the beginning, Ollie asking Stan to repaetand Stan butchering what he said a second ago, only for Ollie to sheepishly agree anyway.  I do like the candle and gold bar contraption Ollie creates to keep Stan awake at the end and the gold bar itself is the center of the highlight of this short.

      I'm about to go Big Chief on you guys and explain a gag 99% of the population would not get but would have made sense to audiences at the time.  What's the big deal about Stan selling the barber shop for gold bullion (and nuts), you ask?  Isn't gold a valuable commodity?  Well, for 6000 years, generally, yes, however, in 1933, new president Franklin Delano Roosevelt made it illegal for citizens to own gold for fear citizens would hoard it during the depression.  So the idea that Stan was given an illegal commodity is the gag, and the innocent way he talks about waiting to go back to the gold standard is a riot.  Stan would have had to wait after his death during the Ford administration before FDR's executive order was repealed.  There's your outdated gag of the week, and to me, the funniest moment of this short.

      A few other notes is Stan personally was a mess during filming, which was delayed.  He was both going through a divorce and the sudden death of his brother.  The Lord Heath link mentions Stan's double chin is more noticeable due to his drinking, and I have to admit I did not notice, maybe you guys can take a look.  I was more fixated on Mae Busch's hair, which is the most bizarre hair style I can recall, yet I think she looks foxy just the same.  Perhaps I'm attracted to uber hair roller hairstyles more than I've led myself to believe.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Metal, I've actually never seen this one, so thank you for explaining the situation for me while I'm totally clueless.  This makes you my Sara Huckabee Sanders, which comparison I'm sure thrills you.
    Mae Busch is, to my taste, never less than great.  This one would have to be awful for me to lose interest in her.
     I just this moment realized that I have this in my L & H Essential Collection, and I've still never seen it.  I've skipped a few in the collection that I've seen a thousand times, but somehow I've skipped over this, unseen.  I'll take it in at my earliest opportunity, and will then, hopefully, post something witty and much less ignorant.

   

[metaldams]

This makes you my Sara Huckabee Sanders, which comparison I'm sure thrills you.
 

I'm a better bassist than her Dad. 

[Freddie Sanborn]

Hmmm. I always thought the gold brick gag was that Stan sold the shop for a plain brick with a veneer of (fake) gold paint. The leaden thud for me was the ending, which must have been a cliche even then.

[metaldams]

Hmmm. I always thought the gold brick gag was that Stan sold the shop for a plain brick with a veneer of (fake) gold paint. The leaden thud for me was the ending, which must have been a cliche even then.

Just for some date context, FDR's executive order was April 1933, OLIVER THE EIGHTH filmed December 1933 - January 1934.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

[Umbrella Sam]

It’s strange, because like THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE before it, the story of OLIVER THE EIGHTH seems like a good idea, but for whatever reason Laurel and Hardy just could not pull it off as well as one might imagine. That’s not to say OLIVER THE EIGHTH is a bad film, as I do think that there are some funny moments, but as far as shorts go, it seems as though Laurel and Hardy worked a lot better with simple ideas than more complex ones like this.

Among my favorite moments are the classic “Tell me that again” bit, Mae Busch surprised at Stan’s arrival, and the moments with Laurel and the fun, especially when he inadvertently tricks Hardy into letting him shoot his foot. The invisible cards gag seems funny at first, but they definitely go overboard with it when it comes to the invisible food gags. I’m not super fond of that part in HALF WITS HOLIDAY either, but at least there it actually makes sense as far as the story goes and had Curly been in better health, I feel as though it could have been a lot funnier with his over-the-top reactions. Here, it just feels like filler; this story easily could have been told as a two-reeler, but they instead decided to rely on this rather unfunny bit to pad it out.

Mae Busch gives an excellent performance as usual and Jack Barty’s OK as the butler too. As a whole, OLIVER THE EIGHTH is an OK comedy; not one of their best, but there’s still a decent amount of funny moments throughout.

7 out of 10

Also, thanks for the explanation about the gold brick. I couldn’t figure out the joke the first time I watched and like Freddie Sanborn, I eventually just assumed it was a fake. Looking back, though, Stan does mention the gold standard, so there at least was some attempt to explain the joke even back then.

[Dr. Mabuse]

One of my favorite second-tier Laurel and Hardy shorts. Mae Busch is nothing short of sublime. The dream framework works much better than "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case." My only criticism is the imaginary dinner scene, which garners few laughs for three minutes of screen time.  Despite its overlength (two reels would have been ideal), "Oliver the Eighth" remains a refreshingly morbid and surreal change of pace.

8/10

[HomokHarcos]

Laurel and Hardy by this point had mostly stuck to two reel short films or features, and this was a one-off return to three reels. It reminds me of when Our Gang switched to one reel but had a special two reeler with Our Gang Follies of 1938. This is a horror comedy in the vain of the Laurel and Hardy Murder Case. I happen to like spook comedies, so I enjoyed this one. Mae Busch as the serial murderess was great. I like how she was able to kill 7 people already and got away with it each time. Ollie is the main character here, and he's excited to see her because him and Stan aren't doing well financially. Unfortunately, they go with the same type of ending where it 's revealed to be a dream.

[Dr. Mabuse]

One thing I'm noticing about Laurel and Hardy is that they never had an incredible run the way The Three Stooges did in the late 30's and early 40's.

Leonard Maltin also noted the absence of a Laurel and Hardy winning streak in his 1985 edition of Movie Comedy Teams. One reason may have been the fact that, unlike the Stooges' two-reel niche at Columbia, Stan and Ollie made films of varying length at Roach before the permanent transition to features in 1935 — so there was bound to be a misfire to stop any potential hot streak.